A Call to Test All Rape Kits

Posted:
Thursday, August 6, 2015 6:43 PM EDT

By Fox 40 Staff. A Broome County legislator is urging the Sheriff's Office to send all rape kits for testing.

This on the heels of a USA Today report that 700,000 rape kits have gone untested. Jason Garnar wants the Sheriff's Office to come up with a written policy on rape kits, and says each should be sent out for testing. Broome County Sheriff David Harder says his officers work with rape counselors to investigate sexual assault claims, then decide when kits should go out for testing.

"When someone has come forward and has been able to get the courage to come forward to report a rape and is willing to collect evidence and put it into a rape kit I think we owe those people," said Broome County Legislator Jason Garnar (D)

"We only send the ones we believe need to be tested for a criminal offense. There are some cases where the person recants and you can't use it anyway. You can't use the DNA from it and it bogs down the system," said Sheriff David Harder.

Harder says there is no written policy in his agency regarding when to send rape kits to the lab. He says it's up to the discretion of the officers and rape counselors involved in the case.